A Poem For Good Friday

Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes:

A new biography of the English poet George Herbert (1593-1633) by John Drury, Music at Midnight, has occasioned a lovely essay by Nicholas Lezard in The Guardian this week. To introduce the poems we’ve chosen for this Easter weekend, we’ll quote the opening of Lezard’s piece:

The devil, whatever people may say, doesn’t have all the best tunes. Of all the lyric poetry our language has produced, George Herbert’s is among the most musical, poignant, direct and, at the same time, subtle and intelligent. It makes allowances for the weakness of the heart—often, indeed, that is its primary subject—and nine-tenths of the poetry that survives is about God.

Herbert’s poetry was passionately admired by T.S.Eliot, W.H.Auden, and Elizabeth Bishop, who wrote, “The three qualities I admire in the poetry I like best are: Accuracy, Spontaneity, Mystery. My three ‘favorite’ poets—not the best poets, whom we all admire, but favorite in the sense of one’s ‘best friends,’ etc. are Herbert, Hopkins, and Baudelaire.

For more on Herbert, you might peruse the contemporary poet Alfred Corn’s illuminating essay on Herbert’s life as a country priest and poet. It can be found on the Poetry Society of America website here.

“Redemption” by George Herbert:

Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,

Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,

And make a suit unto him, to afford

A new small-rented lease, and cancel th’ old.

In heaven at his manour I him sought:

They told me there, that he was lately gone

About some land, which he had dearly bought

Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth,

Sought him accordingly in great resorts;

In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts:

At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth

Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied,

Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, & died.